Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-03
A LEASE LAW.


Whatever be the arguments made in
favor of lease law; whether the object
of the law be revenue for the school
fund, or to provide the only system by
which cattle raising on big scale can be
purpetuated, or both; whether the advo-
cacy of the law be sinister or patriotic,
these two propositions stand out IN
challenged:
l. The maintenance OF cattle ranches
and the settlement of the country in
which such ranches are located are the
opposing forces of an irrepressible con-
6ct-the assertion of the one being q
denial of the other;
2. A lease law is honest only when it
confesses itself barrier to settlement,
shuts out all save the lessee, and gives
him an absolute tenure for the life of his
lease.
a lease law that ignores these self evil
dent truths is a failure, alb initio, and a
foul injustice to the lessee. II a lease
hold does not exclude the man with the
hoe as well as all others, it is pretense
and sham and fraud.
The only valid argument in favor of
lease law is that which rests upon the
unfitness of the land for any save grazing
purposes, or upon the utter impossibility
of "settling" such land for a long term
of years.
The argument Of a revenue for the
school fund is the most delu-
sive that ever seduced great
state into the enactment of a
statutory fraud and abortion. Given,
that no man wanted system by which
calf raising on big scale could be per-
petusted, that no man doubted Cor affect
ed to doubt the adaptability of the west
to agricultural purposes, and that all men
believed the west susceptible of speedy
settlement, would there be one voice
in all the state raised in behalf of
lease law? Would not every encourage
ment be held out to the "sctual settler"
to the home seeker? Under such condi-
lions would not the proposition to lease
the lands in order to swell the school
fund be answered by all that there was
more revenue to the school and all other
funds from sales and settlement than
there possibly could be from leases?
If West Texas is suited to agricultural
pursuits there should not be loot OF
land leased, for it would never BIZ "ses-
tied" under lease law. If west Texas
is not suited to farming purposes, les.the
fact be officially proclaimed in thsspas-
sage of lease law, so that no man shall
be tempted onto its arid plains, and so
that the school fund may be replenished
by rental from the land which, other
wise, would yield the state nothing.
If the Twentieth Legislature shall say
that West Texas is suited to agricultural
purposes, and repeal the alleged lease law
now on the statute books, it will evince
wisdom Endorsed by the policy of the
federal government from it's foundation,
and also by the policy of the state of
Texas until the greed of cattle syndicates
aud corporations outside of Texas
prompted them to advocate q system by
which they could maintain thei-
ranches" and perpetuate calf raising
on a grand scale, and until the
greed of these men and the preju
dice excited against them because of their
greed, resulted in the statutory mon
strosity called a lease law, which pre-
tended to lease and which did "place q
check upon immigration and settlement,
as shown by the register"
If the Twentieth Legislature shall say
that West Texas is not adapted to agricul-
tursl pursuits; or, that it shall require
more tiGe to "settle" 100000 acres of
land with 1000 miles of railway than 1t re-
quired to "settle" 125,0O0,OOO acres of
land with small aid from railways then
let the land be leased, and the cattle
ranches be maintained under q law that